Evidence-informed regulatory practice
Engaging in adaptive regulatory practice
Download 151.73 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Framework analysis
- Applied analysis
- Collaborative global partnerships and engagement
- Conclusion
Engaging in adaptive regulatory practice
|
|
Figure 2 Regulatory and non-regulatory strategies |
|
|
|
Applied analysis
Facilitating non-regulatory and program responses
This form of analysis has been applied to the design of communications- and program-based responses. In addressing new risks and concerns arising from new forms of content and individuals’ digital communications practices, communication strategies and program-based responses are often more flexible—they can be updated and adapted more frequently to address the changing profile of benefits and risks, in a way that legislative or regulatory-based responses are not able.
Cybersmart programs
The ACMA’s Cybersmart programs are designed to support and encourage participation in the digital economy by providing information and education that empowers children to be safe online.
Cybersmart is a national cybersafety and cybersecurity education program managed by the ACMA, as part of the Australian Government’s commitment to cybersafety.
The program is specifically designed to meet the needs of its target audiences of children, young people, parents, teachers and library staff.
Research has gathered evidence on the changing information needs of children, young people and their carers in managing their evolving digital practice. Crucially, and uniquely in the field, it has also been used to test education strategies and evaluate the effectiveness of program resources. Related research includes:
Click and Connect—young Australians’ use of online social media (July 2009)
The research showed that young people have high awareness of online risks, such as the dangers posed by predators and the risk of cyberbullying. But despite this awareness, some young people were prepared to engage in these high-risk behaviours.
Cybersmart parents—connecting parents to cybersafety resources (July 2010)
Research showed that parents approached cybersafety from a range of viewpoints and that they placed varying levels of importance on the question of online safety, depending on the age of their child.
Cybersmart Detectives report (August 2012)
Results of the program evaluation provided good evidence supporting the Cybersmart Detectives game as an important and valuable cybersafety resource.
Cybersmart Outreach Program Evaluation (September 2012)
The evaluation clearly demonstrated very high levels of support for Cybersafety Outreach program among students, teachers and parents/carers, and an expressed need to consolidate and extend particular program elements.
Evaluation of the Tagged education resource (March 2013)
The evaluation found that the ACMA had developed a resource that clearly connected and resonated with the target audiences of teenagers and teachers.
Like, post, share: Young Australians’ experience of social media (August 2013)
The research found that children and young people were avid users of social networking services. Children and young people had a high awareness of risk, but there was scope to refine and consolidate the existing strategy to address some key developments.
Connected parents in the cybersafety age (February 2014)
The research found that children and young people were most likely to turn to their parents first if they needed to enquire about a potential cybersafety issue, despite community perceptions and anecdotal evidence suggesting otherwise. This key finding reinforced the importance of educating parents and encouraging them to talk to their children about cybersafety.
Collaborative global partnerships and engagement
Extended supply chains and the global reach of the internet has raised new issues for regulation designed for local and national markets.
An analysis of the impacts on regulation of globalisation and the rise of participant users in internet-enabled communications has identified common design features of converged regulation. These include flexible and calibrated regulatory tools; a recognition of shared responsibility between individuals, industry participants and government in an environment where individuals create as well as consume communications and media; and the role of global engagement strategies.
A variety of tools and strategies has been used both domestically and internationally to deal with these issues, ranging from industry and citizen education to enforcement of compliance requirements. Increasingly, the cross-border nature of online activities requires that the regulatory tools in place at the national level be linked to multi-level, international regulatory strategies.
The international comparatives studies undertaken as part of the research program have informed the development of regulatory responses to global convergence pressures and the ACMA’s approach to working collaboratively across jurisdictions.
These studies include:
International approaches to audiovisual content regulation—a comparative analysis of the regulatory frameworks (May 2011)
Many aspects of Australia’s audiovisual content regulation framework were found to be similar to those of the jurisdictions examined in this paper. There were strong similarities in the licensing scheme, children’s content and the role of self- and
co-regulation.
An overview of international cyber-security awareness raising and educational initiatives (May 2011)
The research comprised a comparative analysis of awareness-raising programs in 11 international jurisdictions, and a literature review of evaluations undertaken on awareness-raising campaigns in cyber-security.
Converged legislative frameworks—international approaches (August 2011)
While the introduction of converged legislation involved significant change, the emergence of internet and online environment issues necessitated further change. Overall, converged legislative frameworks represented an evolutionary approach to regulating for convergence.
Cross-border regulatory strategies (October 2013)
Increasingly, the cross-border nature of online activities has required that the regulatory tools in place at the national level be linked to multi-level, international regulatory strategies. This paper examined the effectiveness of compliance, enforcement and education tools in a global online environment.
Conclusion
The ACMA was created in 2005 to be a ‘converged’ regulator, though digital technologies and the increased convergence of content and carriage were at that time still relatively new. Subsequent changes in platforms, applications, business models, value chains and forms of social interaction have tested existing legislation and regulatory constructs ever since.
As part of an evidence-informed practice, the ACMA set about the task of analysing the effects of the changing environment on the regulatory framework. As a result, in August 2011 the ACMA published a research paper titled Broken concepts—the Australian communications legislative landscape. This research (updated in 2013) looked at 55 legislative concepts that formed the building blocks of the then current communications and media regulatory arrangements, and found that the majority were either ‘broken’ or under significant strain from the effects of convergence.
In November 2011, the ACMA released the companion paper to Broken concepts, called Enduring concepts—communications and media in Australia, which considered the public interest outcomes relevant to informing and shaping any necessary regulatory or non-regulatory intervention in the converging communications and media environment.
In June 2013, the third paper in this series was released, titled Connected citizens—
a regulatory strategy for the networked society and information economy. This paper built on the previous two papers and outlined a strategy for rebalancing regulatory practice to address enduring matters of public interest and solve contemporary issues.
As discussed in this paper, these pieces of work analyse the essential architecture that links the other research pieces, as part of the ACMA’s approach to assist and inform all stakeholders to:
understand the pressures for change in the media and communications environment
formulate a vision for making sense of these changes
build capacity for consumers, citizens and industry to engage effectively with digital communications and media
adapt regulation and non-regulatory practices to facilitate each of these elements.
In this context, the ACMA’s approach to evidence-gathering and decision-making has provided the ACMA with a deeper understanding of the changing benefits and risks for industry and consumers arising from communications and media developments, and it has informed the development of tailored interventions to support and facilitate changes in the communications and media regulatory environment that benefit the Australian public.
1 Malcolm K. Sparrow, The character of harms: Operational challenges in control, 2008.
2 Malcolm K. Sparrow, The Regulatory Craft, 2000, pp. 28 and 100.
media -> Tsunami Terror Alert: Voices of Youth
media -> Biblical Eschatology Presentation by: D. Paul Beck May 4, 2016 Ground Rules
media -> Guide to completing the collection using the Omnibus system
media -> The milk carton kids
media -> Events Date and Location
media -> The Gilded Age: The First Generation of Historians by H. Wayne Morgan University of Oklahoma, April 18, 1997
media -> Analysis of Law in the United Kingdom pertaining to Cross-Border Disaster Relief Prepared by: For the 30 June 2010 Foreword
media -> Cuba fieldcourse 2010
Regulatory%20Frameworks%20and%20International%20Engagement -> Optimal conditions for effective self- and co-regulatory arrangements
Regulatory%20Frameworks%20and%20International%20Engagement -> Privacy and personal data
Share with your friends: